Abstract

Background

Notch1 signaling has been shown to play a key role in carcinogenesis and progression of various human malignancies. Recent studies have implicated aberrant Notch signaling in cervical cancers. But, relatively little is known about the relation between expression of the Notch1 and survival rate in cervical cancer. In this study, we investigated the expression of Notch1 in cervical cancer to determine whether they could serve as prognostic predictors.

Materials and methods

The expression of Notch1 was detected in 81 cases of cervical cancer; immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to assay the expression level of Notch1. The predictive value of this expression for prognosis was investigated by Kaplan-Meier curves in a multivariate model.

Results

Notch1 factor were intensively stained in cervical cancer immunohistochemically and expression was significantly increased with age and not related with stage, nodal involvement and recurrence. Moreover, expression of Notch1 showed strong immunoreactive bands in Western blot analysis, survival time in patients with high Notch1 expression was significantly shorter than that in patients with low expression (Long rank p value = 0.0175).

Conclusions

High expression of Notch1 is potentially a useful marker for survival in patients with cervical cancer.